Influential Director Concludes Film Series at St. Mary’s College

Posted by St. Mary’s College of Maryland
Bay Leader

Photo by saebaryo

The Department of Theater, Film, and Media Studies (TFMS) at St. Mary’s College of Maryland will host the third and final screening of its sixth annual film series, “Ethnography and Alterity,” on Monday, Oct. 22. The screening will begin at 8:15 p.m. in the college’s Cole Cinema (Campus Center). Former scenic artist for theater and television Kwame Braun will conclude the film series with the screening of his influential film, “passing girl; riverside – An Essay on Camera Work” (1998).

In 1994, Braun returned to his birthplace in Ghana, West Africa, as a Fulbright “Artist-at-Large.” The video “passing girl; riverside” was the first completed piece to come out of his Ghanaian experience. This video essay probes the complexities of video as a tool for cross-cultural research and representation, and examines the implications of anthropological image-making.

In recent years, Braun has also produced, in collaboration with film scholar Janet Walker, “Video Portraits of Survival, Volumes I and II.” The first volume is a collection of student-made video portraits of Holocaust refugees and survivors in Santa Barbara; the second is a collection of video portraits Braun made with Walker and filmmaker Renée Bergen. His current project is a series of video interviews for “Fiat Lux Redux,” an upcoming exhibition of selections from over 6,000 images that photographer Ansel Adams took of University of California for its centennial celebration in 1968.

For more information, contact Mark Rhoda of the TFMS department at [email protected] or 240-895-4231, or visit the TFMS website at www.smcm.edu/tfms.